My Grandmother would have translated it as, "Don't let the foxes guard the henhouse."
As for the major problem with SCCA...The following is a portion of Brock Yates' July 29th column "Notes From the Margin". He is answering a critic about an earlier comment he made about SCCA Pro Racing, but his observations apply to rallying as well, and could provide insight into some of the reasons why the FIA will never approve an SCCA-sanctioned World Rally Championship event.
In part, Yates says:
"?my reference was to major-league motorsports, which the SCCA is decidedly not.
"Don?t get me wrong; it is a splendid organization for amateurs and semi-pros of all kinds; drivers, crew members, constructors, weekend flag-wavers and whistle-blowers, but the SCCA has long since dropped out of inner sanctum of the big leagues. The Club had its chance with the three greatest American road racing series of the last century; Can-Am, Formula 5000 and Trans-Am, all of which it managed to botch. (A trifecta of incompetence.) Only the Trans-Am remains, a hollow shell of its glory days and no more than a lounge act for headliner shows.
"I wish it was otherwise. I had some wonderful years racing with the Club and believe it still does great service to the sport at the entry level by providing myriad activities for tens of thousands of enthusiasts. But sadly its so-called Pro Racing division has become marginalized. Perhaps if CART collapses, the SCCA can worm its way back inside the tent, but based on the open disdain for its top-heavy administration and its endless fascination with niggling bureaucratic complexity at all levels, it would take a miracle for the SCCA to be taken seriously again by the powers-that-be who rule the sport.
"Like it or not, successful professional motorsport is run exclusively by tough, often ruthless dictators. Ecclestone, France, George, Panoz, and perhaps Pook, are not beholden to enthusiasts. None of these power brokers, to my knowledge, live in either Denver or Topeka?
"The SCCA is a wonderful club that does tremendous work in servicing its weekend amateur members. But as an organization structured on a Byzantine pile of Regions, Divisions, committees, boards, study groups, panels, conventions, internal political rivalries, and more titled executives than a small Caribbean nation, it is simply not geared to run a modern, wholly professional racing series. It does yeoman service in supplying corner workers paddock marshals, timers and scorers, emergency crews, etc., for some of the real pros, but it has lost its credibility as the operator of a first-tier racing series among the elites who control racing worldwide. Sad, but true."
So, if Yates is right, then SCCA should stick to club activities and leave Pro events to other sanctioning bodies. Hmmm....what if all the organizers of major rallys moved their events to USAC, like Cherokee Trails and Ramada Express, and Club events stayed with SCCA?
...too much serious thinking gives me a headache.
Gravelgeezer
